Catching Bank Robbers in Colorado

On the other hand, the reporter has a good point. What happens if the bank robber decides to open fire, now that you've handcuffed every single adult in the area?

For that matter, what justifies putting chains on free men and women when you know that almost none of them are guilty? The assumption that it is OK to chain people up at the convenience of the state is the sort of thing that strikes me as fundamentally wrong in a free country.

8 comments:

The assumption that it is OK to chain people up at the convenience of the state

Yeah, that jumped out at me, too. The convenience of the state can never be an excuse for abridging individual liberties. I don't like lawsuits, generally, but here seem like 18 or 19 legitimate ones. And no class action suit--make that government answer in court for each its abuses individually.

From the linked article, Most of the adults were handcuffed, then were told what was going on and were asked for permission to search the car,” Fania said. “They all granted permission....

I have to wonder how many Texans or Georgians would have granted that permission. I hope not many. I think I can identify at least one of each who would have demurred.

As I read the report earlier today I understood it to say the LEO's took an anonymous phone tip. A tip that provided no identifying characteristics of the bank robbing perp(s) other than the perps were hiding in a car at a particular street/road intersection. On that tip the local LEO's decided to handcuff, search, and detain for 1.5 to 2 hours all of the individuals who happened to be at a particular intersection...

"I have to wonder how many Texans or Georgians would have granted that permission. I hope not many. I think I can identify at least one of each who would have demurred."

I prefer not to say what I might do in this circumstance versus that circumstance, but in this case, I think it's safe to say that you can ID two from Georgia.

On that tip the local LEO's decided to handcuff, search, and detain for 1.5 to 2 hours all of the individuals who happened to be at a particular intersection....

The Saudi School of Security. There was a security incident at the King Abdul Aziz Air Base too many years ago while I was TDY there. Saudi security continued to let anyone come on base who wanted, as though nothing was going on. But they held everyone on base until they'd resolved the situation.

Entirely inappropriate in the US. With the possible exception of a confirmed, active terrorist threat. But I'd have to think about that.

I was giving them the benefit of the doubt by accepting their claim that they had found the guy. If they're wrong about that, though, good gracious.

One of the Althouse commenters you mentioned has this to say:

"Hm. You search all the cars but one and haven't found the guy yet. You're going to be in seriously deep shit if you handcuff a bunch of innocent people and don't even find the suspect. Time to search that last car. What do you do?"

One of the consistent themes I hear nowadays is a distrust of the police- A typical quote would go something like this "I was brought up to respect the police and ask them for help but anymore I tell my kids to stay away from them...." etc- and coming from middle age conservatives- this is indicative of a very serious problem. even the older cops remark on the change-.